Admn is lax in implementing anti-smoking laws: Murli Deora

TIMES NEWS NETWORK
Mumbai: Good laws, bad implementation. This was the essence of Rajya Sabha MP Murli Deora's speech on the occasion of World No-Tobacco Day at a function held at Jawahar Bal Bhawan, Chowpatty, organised in coordination with the Times Group, on Tuesday.
In his address as chief guest, Deora lamented the fact that cigarette and tobacco products continued to be sold near schools and colleges despite the existence of a law prohibiting it.
"Laws of the country have meaning and purpose only if they are strictly and sincerely acted upon by the administration. Laxity and apathy tend to make laws ineffective or as good as their not being there,'' said Deora.
A few years ago, Deora had filed a public interest litigation against smoking in public places. This had resulted in the supreme court directing the central government to frame and implement laws to ban smoking in specified places and prohibit the sale of cigarette and tobacco products near schools and colleges.
The centre, in turn, assigned this task to the various state governments. "But cigarettes continue to be widely available everywhere,'' he said.
He observed that smuggled cigarettes were pouring into the country and many movies were covertly promoting smoking.
This is because the state governments concerned "have been dragging their feet for over a year now in framing the required notifications''.
Deora emphasised the need for the administration to tighten implementation of the laws and appealed to citizens to get actively involved in the anti-smoking campaign.
"It is ironical that when most western countries are witnessing a decline in smoking, the situation in India is turning out to be the opposite, with more and more youth, including teenagers, girls and women, falling victim to the evils of tobacco.''
He also appealed to the film industry to help curb the habit and asked for the removal of cigarette vending machines installed at strategic points in the city.

Tags

Health & Sanitation,Law & Order,Speeches

Note: Please visit the Newspaper's Website to Print the contents of the article